Inequality and welfare states in international perspective

Master 2024/2025

Type: Elective course (International Relations: European and Asian Studies)

Area of studies: International Relations

Delivered by: School of World Economy

Where: Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

When: 1 year, 3, 4 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Oksana Sinyavskaya

Master’s programme: International Relations: European and Asian studies

Language: English

ECTS credits: 6

Full Syllabus

Abstract

This course offers an introduction to inequality and welfare states in an international perspective. How does social stratification and inequalities influence welfare state development? To what extent and in which way do different welfare state lessen, reproduce or heighten social inequalities? This course aims to address these questions from sociological and political economy perspectives. The course starts from an overview of different dimensions of inequality and factors contributing to its growth in the last decades. Then we turn to the issue of the diversity of welfare states in different regions and countries and their distributional outcomes. The last part of the course focuses on the current demographic, social, technological and economic challenges to welfare states and welfare states adaptation and transformation.

Learning Objectives

This course aims to: - make the students familiar with the debates about poverty, economic and social inequalities, social stratification, accumulated inequalities and the corresponding social and public policies and other forms of social protection; - discuss how we can classify and analyze different welfare states in a comparative way, and how we can measure and explain welfare state change; - give an overview of research and policy debates about “digital poverty”, “digital divide”, and “new social risks”; - review and critically discuss various exogenous and endogenous pressures on the welfare states in the 21st century; - make the students familiar with the different theoretical approaches to explain patterns of welfare state transformation, adaptation and social policy reforms; - enable participants to critically discuss key questions concerning the functioning and development of welfare states in different countries thus enabling them to develop their own perspectives and contribute to current public debates about welfare provisioning.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Become familiar with the basic terms used in debates around well-being, inequality and social policy
Can explain the relationship between poverty, inequality and economic development
Become familiar with and can correctly apply the terms used in debates around social stratification, and social inequalities
Problematize and present conclusions as well as arguments orally and in a written form according to academic principles
Become familiar with Issues of measurement and how these impact on policy formulation and evaluation, can measure poverty, economic inequality
Become familiar with and can correctly apply the terms used in debates around life course inequality
Become familiar with the main approaches to classification and analysis of different welfare states in a comparative way, and ways of measurement and explanation of welfare state change
Acquire practical skills of analytical work on the study of social processes, and the comparative analysis of models of social policy
Can explain the implications of social policies for the distribution and quality of social and economic security and hence for the poverty and inequality dynamics
Be able to demonstrate a clear grasp of contemporary debates on the key social policy challenges in countries with different levels of development and have a deeper understanding of the socio-political, institutional, economic and demographic factors that influence the formation and the dynamics of different welfare regimes
Become familiar with research and policy debates about population ageing, gender revolution, migration, and “new social risks”
Become familiar with research and policy debates about “digital poverty”, “digital divide”, and “techno-poverty”
Become familiar with the different theoretical approaches to explain patterns of welfare state transformation, adaptation and social policy reforms

Course Contents

Introduction to the course and overview
Poverty and Economic Inequality
Social inequalities
Life course inequality
Is ‘welfare state’ a Western concept and phenomenon? Welfare state typologies: established and emerging welfare states
Modern welfare states regimes: Western countries and former socialist countries (CEEs, post-soviet states)
Modern welfare states regimes: Latin America and Asia
Welfare state outcomes, poverty, inequality, and redistribution
Challenges to welfare states: changes in demographic behavior, population ageing and migration
Challenges to welfare states: technological revolutions, post-industrial development, globalization
Challenges to welfare states: crises, neoliberal shift, public attitudes
Welfare states resilience and changes. Outlook

Assessment Elements

Exam
Final examination is in the form of a written test
Class attendance and participation
Since this course only takes place once a week, attendance is serious for successful mastery of the course material. Attendance will be taken at each class.
Policy memo
Reading Reflection
Краткое изложение основных моментов прочитанного материала. During the course students are expected to read a lot of academic literature on the topics of the course. Starting from the second week of this course, every student is expected to submit a total of two reading summaries throughout the course. A student can choose the readings they are willing to summa-rize but they must complete at least one reflection to be graded. The reflection is a one-page (single-spaced) maximum written summary of the reading assignment. It must be submitted by email 24 hours before the class. The reflection should outline the main arguments of the readings, insights into the reading, and pro-vide two questions for discussion during the class. The class discussion will start with the student’s summary.
Quiz
Короткий письменный учебный тест, выполняемый по результатам прохождения нескольких тем: разделы 1-4; разделы 5-8; разделы 9-11
Presentation
A group of students (2-3) will give a short presentation in-class in a fourth module. Each presentation will last 15 minutes and should be based on the research conducted by students during the course. In this presentation, students will outline the evolution of a welfare state / social policies in a country of their choice and will make predictions about how the particular welfare state in question will respond to crises of economics and changing demographics, using basic concepts of political economy. More details will be provided in class in the first week of the course
Media assignment
Students are expected to find 2 publications in mass media related to the course topics and to critically assess it (1-2 pages maximum)

Interim Assessment

2024/2025 4th module
0.025 * Class attendance and participation + 0.025 * Class attendance and participation + 0.05 * Exam + 0.05 * Media assignment + 0.3 * Media assignment + 0.05 * Policy memo + 0.25 * Presentation + 0.1 * Quiz + 0.05 * Quiz + 0.05 * Reading Reflection + 0.05 * Reading Reflection

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Social stratification : class, race, and gender in sociological perspective, , 2001
Social stratification : class, race, and gender in sociological perspective, , 2008
Social stratification : class, race, and gender in sociological perspective, , 2014
The Blackwell companion to social inequalities, , 2005
The Oxford handbook of economic inequality, , 2009
The Oxford handbook of the welfare state, , 2010
The Routledge handbook of the welfare state, , 2013

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Age studies : a sociological examination of how we age and are aged through the life course, Pickard, S., 2016
Capital in the twenty-first century, Piketty, T., 2014
Changing welfare states, Hemerijck, A., 2013
Democratization and welfare state development in Taiwan, Aspalter, C., 2002
Development, democracy and welfare states : Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe, Haggard, S., 2008
Global capital, political institutions, and policy change in developed welfare states, Swank, D., 2002
Global inequality : a new approach for the age of globalization, Milanovic, B., 2016
Handbook on social stratification in the BRIC countries : change and perspective, , 2013
Inequality : what can be done?, Atkinson, A. B., 2015
Making a European welfare state? : convergences and conflicts over European social policy, , 2004
Modern welfare states : politics and policies in Social Democratic Scandinavia, Einhorn, E. S., 1989
New welfare states in East Asia : global challenges and restructuring, , 2011
Population ageing - a threat to the welfare state? : the case of Sweden, , 2010
Post-communist welfare states in European context : patterns of welfare policies in Central and Eastern Europe, Kuitto, K., 2016
Radical welfare state retrenchment : a comparative analysis, Starke, P., 2008
Reforming European welfare states : Germany and the United Kingdom compared, Clasen, J., 2005
Reframing social citizenship, Taylor-Gooby, P., 2010
Social foundations of postindustrial economies, Esping-Andersen, G., 2000

Authors

SINYAVSKAYA OKSANA VYACHESLAVOVNA

Course Syllabus